Billionaire investor George Soros said it best: “Good investing is boring.” Two great examples: dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) — an automatic way of building wealth that most investors ignore — and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. Let’s take the second one first. Many of the 50 companies on the Dividend Aristocrats list peddle everyday staples like tape, telephone service and over-the-counter drugs—products that are about as humdrum as you’ll find.
DRIPs let you use your cash dividends to purchase additional shares in a company (and even fractions of shares; more on this in a moment) without paying commissions. That means your cash buys its full weight of shares. Under a DRIP, the company simply reinvests your dividends instead of cutting you a check. That leads to a very happy cycle: as you buy more shares, you generate higher dividend payments—which you use to buy more shares. 3 Great Dividend Aristocrats With DRIPs: 3M Co. (MMM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Hormel Foods (HRL).